Riding the wind of rebirth

"How about we carve 'Grandma with Two Grandchildren' instead?" Uncle came over again, this time with a bunch of cowpeas in his hand: "The traditional Chinese characters on the iron are too complicated, and there are too many characters, so it's not easy for the elbow to arrange the seal. In the future, we can also carve 'Grandma with Three Grandchildren' or 'Grandma with Four Grandchildren'!"

Nowadays, most people are only children, so to be considered a "grandmother with two grandchildren," one generally needs to have two children, and both of those children must be married and have their own children.

Now that my cousin Anxin has married a Hong Konger, she can continue to have children, so my third aunt really does have the potential to become a "third granddaughter" or "fourth granddaughter".

This finally satisfied Third Aunt, and the matter of the seal was settled.

What's difficult for some is easy for others. Seal design and carving is a skill-based craft, but it's similar to calligraphy. If you can write, the composition is fixed. The difficulty lies not in carving, but in creating the inscription.

However, as a seal for a junior student at the senior university, Zhou Zhi doesn't need to put too much thought into it. The character "Su" itself is very beautiful, with a grass radical on top and a fish on one side and a grain radical on the other. It would look great as a single character in a seal.

The third aunt's name is Su Xiuzhang. Both characters, Xiuzhang, are single-component characters with more strokes on top and fewer strokes on the bottom. Therefore, they can be simply arranged side by side in a layout that is tight at the top and loose at the bottom, which will look very nice.

This makes it much more upscale than the "Su Xiuzhang seals" that the teacher wholesales to the students of the senior university.

The remaining seal can be modeled after the "Old Man of Cocoon Garden" seal by Huang Yi, a famous seal engraver during the Qianlong era, to create "Old Lady with Two Grandchildren". The characters "Old Man" and "Old Lady" are not very different, so they can be copied directly. The lower half of the traditional character "Cocoon" has a parallel structure, which is also very similar to "Double", so half of it can be copied. The remaining "Grandchildren" character has an open structure, which is much simpler to design than the fully enclosed "Garden" character. Copying can reduce the difficulty, and the design can be completed in a minute.

Except for the character “Su”, which is in relief, all the others are in intaglio. Zhou Zhi worked on the intaglio characters first and finished the “Xiuzhang” seal in just a few minutes: “Third Aunt, come and try it.”

Seeing that the third aunt's technique was incorrect, Zhou Zhiyou had no choice but to put down the knife and teach the third aunt how to print.

This wasn't difficult to learn, and the third aunt quickly mastered it, producing a perfect seal: "Beautiful! The teacher didn't teach this, I'll teach them in the next class."

The "Two Grandsons" seal is also carved in intaglio, and it deliberately pursues the naive and unrefined style of Huang Yi. The carving needs to be swift and bold, so the seal is completed very quickly.

However, the last seal, with the single character "Su" in relief, is the finishing touch in this set and requires meticulous carving.

"Dinner's ready! Where are Xiaomiao and Tiedan?" Uncle came out to greet everyone and found that two people were missing.

Zhou Zhi stood up and found the two of them pulling up scallions in the garden.

"Why pull up so many scallions?" Zhou Zhi criticized Mai Xiaomiao, "You, as her aunt, not only didn't stop her, but you encouraged her to."

"It's alright, we can have scallion and meat pancakes for dinner tonight. Hehehe, you haven't seen your uncle's cooking skills before, have you?"

When the younger generation misbehaves and the elders have to recite their lessons, it's time to stop disciplining them.

During the meal, Li Laosan was very satisfied with Tiedan's performance: "This kid is quite picky about food in Hong Kong, but he's doing very well here!"

“Anyway, there are only three meals a day.” Uncle’s words revealed the core solution to the problem: “If you don’t eat your fill and then overeat, you’ll just have to wait for the next meal.” Zhou Zhi gave Uncle a thumbs up; the two elders really knew how to spoil their child.

During the meal, Zhou Zhi learned from the conversation that his second cousin was there because his cousin Anxin was worried about his aunt and uncle and wanted to find them a nanny to help with cooking and housework.

However, my aunt and uncle were not happy about it, so my cousin called my mother and asked her to think of a solution.

My mother then asked my aunt to find relatives in our hometown, people who were all very familiar with each other and whose families were currently experiencing some financial difficulties.

My aunt then chose my second cousin.

My second cousin has no stable income. Her husband passed away early, and her daughter was admitted to university, but her score wasn't high enough. She was a self-funded student through a sponsored program, and the tuition was over three thousand yuan a year, which is not a small amount.

My mother turned to my third aunt and uncle and told them about my second cousin's situation. She said that they were all relatives on my uncle's side, and everyone knew what kind of person she was. Now, my daughter has an extra 3,000 yuan in tuition fees every year, plus living expenses, which will be at least 6,000 to 7,000 yuan a year. It's impossible for a woman to make up for it by going to the countryside to collect chickens and ducks to sell at the market.

My aunt and uncle immediately agreed to let my second cousin come to Jingyang to help with the housework, paying her 500 yuan a month and also covering her niece's tuition fees.

Everyone was very satisfied with how well the matter was handled. My cousin Anxin called my mom afterwards and praised her for her brilliant idea.

The relatives of several families all saw each other frequently in Jiuzhi Town. Zhou Zhi's second cousin lived in the town, which allowed him to indirectly learn about the operation and actual living conditions of his eldest uncle and aunt's clinic, as well as the situation in Dajing Township where his fifth uncle lived.

Fifth Uncle is living a very comfortable life now. It's not unusual for Third Sister to send him living expenses every month. What's rare is that Da Tou is now sensible, but he's not as patient as Third Sister. He basically sends money twice a year. Together, the two children can send about two thousand yuan a month to the family. With the money in Dajing Township and Jiuzhi Town, this amount is "more than enough, simply more than enough".

My fifth uncle has now quit his job as a salesman at the county winery, gets medicine from my eldest aunt, and returned to his old profession as a barefoot doctor in the village, sometimes treating people and sometimes treating pigs.

As for why he returned to his old profession, it was inspired by his aunt and uncle. After retiring, these city leaders continued to contribute their remaining energy, providing logistical support for his retired wife who worked at the hospital. The elderly couple made a significant contribution to the medical security of the township.

This wasn't summarized by my fifth uncle; it was a report published in the newspaper after a reporter's interview. My eldest aunt mentioned in the report that the country actually had a barefoot doctor system before, and she was just becoming a barefoot doctor again.

Fifth Uncle thought this was a dig at him, because he was actually the barefoot doctor in Dajing Township. But he was overthinking it. Although the "position" had never been abolished, it just meant that he didn't get paid.

When talking about the stories of Dajing Township and the banks of the Hongshui River in Jiuzhi Town, the second cousin seemed to open up, allowing Zhouzhi, who hadn't been back for a long time, to have a better understanding of his mother's hometown.

"Is this red tofu brought from your hometown?" Lunch was very plentiful. In addition to preserved meats, cold chicken salad, roast meats, lotus root and pork rib soup, and fresh vegetables harvested from the garden, when we were almost done eating, my second cousin brought out a small dish of red tofu. Zhou Zhi tasted the flavor of his hometown in one bite.

"Your fifth and eldest uncles both say you're a big foodie," your second cousin laughed. "It seems it's absolutely true. This red tofu is something I brought from my hometown. Can you even tell the difference in the pork knuckle?" (End of Chapter)